


Wanna See Them Bending

by Jen425



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Disney Princesses, The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, First Kiss, aged up character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22515790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: “Humans can use water magic now?”
Relationships: Ariel (Disney)/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: X-Ship - The Crossover Relationship Exchange 2019





	Wanna See Them Bending

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlight/gifts).



> It’s not explicitly mentioned but Katara is 17 and Sokka is 18 at the start of this story. Presumably Ariel ran away a year after her dad destroyed her stuff, though there was no Eric involved in those choices in this AU.
> 
> They’re both 18 by the time they get together.

There is nothing Katara loves more than watching the waters move with her will. She tries not to practice too much, at least not where anyone can see her, but nothing makes her smile as allowing ice and water to twist around her in perfect, fluid patterns that she slowly figures out.

…Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. She loves her family more. She loves helping others. But…

The water has been hers since she was born, and, even if it had taken her mother from her, it was beautiful. It was powerful. Magical.  _ Living _ , in a ways that she could never describe.

She balanced a thin sheet of ice above her head, smirking up at it.

“Humans can use water magic, now?” A voice asks.

Katara jumps. And, slowly, she turns towards the unfamiliar voice. Who could it possibly be?

…apparently, a girl with bright blue, incredibly round, and extremely large eyes, red hair that shone just a shade lighter than blood, bouncy and beautiful despite dripping water… oh, and a fish tail.

What the  _ hell _ ?

The girl waves, her wet red hair somehow still bouncy and unfrozen around her shoulders.

“Hello,” she says, voice hesitant.

Well Katara can’t just stand here looking stupid, now, can she?

“Hi,” she says, forcing herself to come to her senses. There is a fish-girl here, but she really  _ is _ here, so what can Katara do but try and figure it out? “I’m Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. What’s your name?”

The other girl smiles.

“I’m Ariel,” she says. “Formerly of Atlantis.”

“Formerly?”

Ariel looks away.

“I’m not going back,” she says. “Not after what Daddy did.”

“What did he do that was so terrible?” Katara asks, taking a step towards the fish girl. Ariel turns back to her with hatred in her eyes.

“He destroyed my collection,” she says. “ Because he’s afraid… so I left.”

“Oh.”

Ariel smiles, sadly.

“Merfolk don’t venture here unless we’re desperate, though,” she says. “So I should be safe.”

“And are you desperate?” Katara asks. Ariel just shrugs.

“I don’t know,” she responds. Katara finds herself thinking that she looks very beautiful, no matter the expression on her face or the tail in place of her legs.

(They keep talking until the sun begins to set and Katara has to rush home.)

  
  
  


“Katara! Hi!”

Katara doesn’t drop the ball of water hanging over Sokka’s head (because as it turns out Ariel’s people have power not dissimilar to that of a waterbender and Ariel has helped teach her just a few things more over the past two months), but it’s a close thing, and Sokka  _ does _ drop his fishing pole.

Instead, she returns the water to its source and turns to Ariel.

“Hi, Ariel,” she says. Behind her, she can hear Sokka groan.

“Oh great,” he says. “It’s your fish friend.”

Yeah. That had been an… interesting conversation. But any hesitation Ariel had had had long since faded by Katara’s third encounter with the mermaid (as she liked to be called), so it could have gone worse, when Ariel met Sokka.

(That time, Katara had in fact dropped a ball of water on Sokka’s head.)

“My name is Ariel,” Ariel says, and her pouty frown is probably cuter than Katara should even be noticing, but here she is. “And I found something really weird.”

Sokka just groans.

“Great,” he says. “Another adventure.”

Katara can’t help but laugh.

“Sounds fun,” she says. “So what did you find?”

“A boy in an iceberg.”

  
  
  


“Oh thank god!” A familiar voice cries, “I finally caught up with you.”

Katara smiles at the familiar girl at the edge of the water. Sokka groans. Aang lights up.

“Hi, Ariel,” the Avatar says. “It’s nice to see you.”

Ariel smiles in return.

“You too,” she says. “You’re different from Katara. Or Sokka.”

“Did you see the Giant Koifish?” Aang asks. Ariel brightens in response.

“Yeah!” She says. “They sing this beautiful, low song.”

Aang just smiles, excitedly, stripping his clothes.

“Well, I’m going to ride one,” he says. “You want to watch?”

Ariel shrugs.

“Sounds good.”

  
  
  


She stays, after that.

  
  
  


“You know, as much as I love Appa,” Ariel complains, “I hate being trapped on him when there’s no water around.”

Katara hmms, swimming next to her in the middle of the lake they’d found, to land. Ariel flicks her fin.

“What I wouldn’t give for a pair of legs right now,” she continues. “It used to be all I ever wanted - to be human, to understand their world.”

“And now?” Katara asks, before she can even think about the question. Ariel smirks, spinning around in the water.

“Legs or not,” she says. “I belong right here.”

Katara meets her wide-eyes gaze, and wonders if here means their group or just herself. She finds herself hoping that it’s just for her more than she wants to analyze.

“I’m glad you came with us, anyways,” she admits. “I don’t think I could do this without you.”

Ariel shrugs.

“The Fire Nation would most likely be the ones killing merfolk,” she says. “I want to help you, and Aang… but I also want revenge for, and a chance to prove… oh never mind.”

Katara doesn’t asks. Ariel doesn’t say anymore about it.

“Well, still,” she says. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  
  
  


Ariel swims beside them into the Northern Water Tribe and the far more trained waterbenders around them help get her inside of their offered living quarters. By this point the questions always inherent to Ariel’s existence have become so commonplace that Katara doesn’t even think to hard about answering them.

(And, every now and then, people have even come to hear of the Avatar and  _ expect  _ his half-fish companion. Some even assume it’s a Water Tribe thing!)

That said, the utter  _ rage _ on her face when Katara and Aang explain to her about Paku’s decision is utterly unexpected.

“He can’t do that!” She cries. “Waterbending is everything to you; it’s like human cultures or singing are to me!”

“He can and he will,” Katara groans.

“I can just not go,” Aang offers.

That’s just as impossible!

“No, Aang,” Katara says. “You need a waterbending Master.”

“You could always just have Aang teach you what he learned, in secret,” Ariel offers. “Even if he’s younger than you, it still means you can get the information… My sisters and I used to sneak out and sing, a… a long time ago.”

Katara files that knowledge away for future use, knowing how rare it is for Ariel to mention her past…

But she has a good idea.

  
  
  


They kiss after the Fire Nation are sent packing from the North Pole and Katara can name ten reasons why. Because she doesn’t know if she’ll have another chance, after what happened with Yue. Because Ariel is really pretty when she’s angry. Because she’s wanted to for a long time and still has adrenaline in her system.

She doesn’t know, she doesn’t care, and the kiss is awkward and only lasts three second, but it ends and Ariel’s wide eyes are still staring deep into her own, as the other girl slowly smiles.

“Oh thank Poseidon,” she says. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

Katara smiles back.

“Me too.”

Whatever comes next, they’ll have each other, and they’ll have the rest of the Gaang.

And you know what? That sounds like enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
